“Already taken care of.” His fingers twitched under hers like he wanted to do something with them, but didn’t.
“Okay then.” Lucy forced a bright tone. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Joel offered that famous half-smile of his, before he got out of the car, rounded the hood, and opened her door. He took her hand as she rose from her seat. Neither of them spoke as they walked up to her aunt’s house.
When they got to the front stoop, he brushed his lips against her cheek. “I’ve missed you, Lucy,” he whispered. Or maybe he didn’t.
With her brain short circuiting from his kiss, it was hard to tell. Then he left her there and headed back to his car before she could say another word.
She watched until he drove out of sight, wondering how she’d ever keep things fake between them when he kept making everything feel so real.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“If you want to leave at any time, just say the word,” Joel repeated for the fifth time as he led Lucy up the sidewalk to Hope and Gabe’s house, guiding her with his hand resting low on her back. His hand itched to get closer to her skin, closer to her, but he held his distance.
“I won’t,” she told him. “I already told you, I’m used to this kind of thing.”
He stopped before they got to the door, shifting her gently so they were face to face. He didn’t want to come across as pushy, but he did want to make sure. This was the day he introduced Lucy as his fiancée to his family—at a freaking baby shower. So, he leveled her with what he hoped came across as a meaningful yet empathetic look. “But if at any point you’re not, you’ll tell me, right?”
Her soft lips curved into a smile. “I promise.”
Maybe she was right, and this was normal to her. He reminded himself they’d spent the last four years leading separate lives. Maybe she’d gone to dozens of parties similar to this. But he hadn’t. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been to ababy anything.
As Lucy studied him, a crease appeared between her eyebrows. “Areyouokay?”
Grief struck his gut like a sucker punch, something that hadn’t happened in a while. Just as his chest started to tighten, her gentle touch trailed down his arm, and he snapped out of the moment, locking eyes with Lucy. Hers were luminous with concern. As she interlocked their fingers, a sad sort of knowing smile touched her lips. Whatever he was feeling, she’d felt tenfold.
“We’re in this together, right?” Her tone was reassuring, and after another few seconds, she drew her shoulders back and inhaled deeply. “Okay, now let’s go make everyone believe we’re madly in love.” She tugged him toward the door.
This was crazy. So fucking crazy he couldn’t believe it was happening. But it was. Lucy was holding his hand like it had always been there, so they could tell everyone they were happily engaged.
Four years ago, he’d imagined this scenario a thousand times. He’d memorized a heartfelt speech. He and Lucy had practiced over and over how they’d tell their families that they’d married on a wild whim in Vegas and hadn’t regretted it for a second. At the time, he’d settled on making a declaration of love and devotion so profound that neither family nor Lucy would ever question the depth of his sincerity.
Then reality had hit in the form of his empty apartment and a heart so shattered he hadn’t glimpsed a speck of light for months. The void had left him cold and bereft, and he’d promised himself to never feel any emotion that could lead to a similar scenario. Shit like that just ended up hurting too much, and he wasn’t going to let his heart ripped out a second time. Especially not by Lucy Barone.
Until he’d finally gone looking for her at her cousin’s wedding, and it was like the other half of him had locked back into place. He couldn’t resent her or hate her or deny her anything. Even if it cost him his heart.
He took a bracing inhale and knocked on his sister’s door. Three loud raps. Almost immediately, the tap of high heels made their way to the hall, along with a dog barking and a little girl squealing, and despite the chill in his heart, a smile tugged his mouth. He loved his family, now more than ever before.
There had been a time when he wasn’t sure they’d ever get to where they were. Two years ago, they’d almost been torn apart by his parents’ secret. He and Hope’s world had shattered the moment they’d found out, by accident, that Hope was adopted. When she’s run away to Portland, he’d become the glue that held everyone together. Not easy to do with an angry sister, a mother who did not do well with confrontation, and a father who, for the first time in his life, found himself in a situation he couldn’t control.
Keeping his family together had become his responsibility. Months of mediating between his sister and their parents had ensued. Endless negotiating for peaceful visits, and navigating awkward family get togethers. All because he couldn’t stomach losing more family, especially not after he’d lost the fragile one he’d built with Lucy.
When the door flew open, his niece and her dog exploded onto the porch, and Joel’s heart clenched. Those months of hell, anxiety, and drama had been worth it for this. One family saved.
“Hey cutie,” he said, laughing as he scooped Ruby up for a hug.
“Uncle Joel,” Ruby squealed, wrapping her arms andlegs around him in a full body embrace. “It’s about time you’re here. We had to wait for you to eat cupcakes!”
He hugged her back, absorbing her shock wave of joy. She bounced off him as quickly as she’d bounced on and grabbed his hand, tugging him. “Come on, come on.”
“Ruby!” Hope chided lovingly, as she waddled down the hallway. “Let them come in the door first.”
Hope was massively pregnant, which might have been the cause of her glow, but there was more. Gabe and Ruby had changed his sister. And in a few months, Hope would officially be adopting Ruby.
This adoption process seemed to bring her closure and allowed her to experience what she’d doubted when she’d been blindsided by her own adoption. That the bond of family wasn’t blood, it was love. Ruby was family. She was Hope’s daughter, down to the soul, and it had nothing to do with genetics. Same as Hope was Walter and Audrey Morgan’s daughter.
She was five weeks from giving birth and wearing a fancy dress, her hair perfectly done, and a pair of high heels on her feet.
